Rubber parts are commonly made by compressing, injecting or extruding rubber materials in metal molds and dies. One aspect of the prior art is that experimental, prototype and replacement rubber parts with deep undercuts, re-entrant curves and convolutions require precision metal molds and split or collapsing cores.
Another aspect of the prior art is that long lead times and high costs are incurred in procuring complex experimental, prototype and replacement parts made from rubber materials. Another aspect of the prior art is that tests are often delayed until production molds are available because of the high costs and long lead times for procuring prototype parts with temporary molds.
Delays in testing prototype parts increase the risk of expensive changes to production molds.
Another aspect of the prior art is that equipment is sometime obsoleted because replacement parts are not available or too expensive.